Friend virus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Friend virus (FV) is an infection of adult immunocompetent mice and it a well established model for studying genetic resistance to infection by an immunosuppressive retrovirus. The Friend virus has implications for both immunotherapies and vaccines. For example it has been shown that successful passive antibody therapy is dependent on MHC type because of the requirement for a T cell response.
The Friend virus is a member of the Retroviridae group of viruses, with its nucleic acid being ssRNA.
[edit] Vaccination
There have been experiments that show that it is possible to protect against FV infection by several types of vaccines, including killed and attenuated viruses, viral proteins, peptides and recombinant vaccinia vectors expressing FV gene (73077) Experiments have shown that protection from FV infection can be elicited by several different types of vaccines including killed and attenuated viruses, viral proteins, peptides, and recombinant vaccinia vectors expressing FV genes (73-77).
In a study of vaccinated mice, it was possible to identify the immunological epitopes required for protection against FV and then it was possible to determine the types of immunological responses necessary or required for protection against FV.
The research discovered protective epitopes that were localized to F-MuLV gag and env proteins. This was achieved using recombinant vaccinia viruses expressing the 74 and 76 genes of FV.
[edit] Implications
The FV model showed valuable information regarding genetic resistance to retroviral disease, but there is still much to be done to discover about the immunological mechanisms and the genes that influence the virus. A particular gene of interest is the Rfc-3 gene which cause susceptibility to suppression of the FV specific anitbody response. The greater understanding by which the mechanisms work may aid in the development of immunotherapies and vaccines that may be applicable to human diseases.
